Helpful hints and friendly notes from the world-acclaimed photography instructors at BetterPhoto.com

Weblogs by Brenda Tharp

August 01, 2006

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Whether by hardware failure, or by simple operator malfunction (in this case me), files were going to get lost or destroyed. On Friday, I inadvertently wiped out my Pictures folder on my Apple G5, all 160 Gigabytes of them. Yep, threw in the trash and then deleted trash. It's pretty scary to come back to your computer and see no Pictures folder anymore when just minutes ago you were working in there! Panic set in, but my background in computers kicked in, and I told myself "don't touch a thing" and called my partner in to consult with me. Turns out a friend had some recovery software, and we were able to successfully retrieve about 90% of the stuff, maybe even more. The software was PROSOFT's Data Rescue II for Mac, and it worked great!

I wouldn't have had to bother, but I had been working a lot the past week on minor imaging stuff - prepping pics for various vendor gallery pages, a submission for a gallery exhibit preview, next year's workshop brochures at various schools, thank you prints for friends, etc., and those had not been backed up - yet. I also had just moments before this amazing event consolidated all my digital teaching images and moved them into a new folder name. They were to be backed up next - until disaster struck.

Thankfully, I had heeded the warning of many colleagues, about doing multiple backups of all digital RAW files. So at least my trips to England/Ireland, Italy, Egypt, Florida, etc. were safely on backup drives. But what about the rest? Somehow, I have to spend time piecing the folders all back together now, but at least I can group them by their file size.

It turns out the recovery program strips off the file name and assign its own - with the file size in pixels in the name, but nothing that resembles the files names I had given to my teaching images, such as "laundryonbluewallburano.tif" or "leafonrockYosemite"! And that file, while a backup exists, is not as current as it should be.

That's my lesson here. I had done critical backups, but not frequently enough on some files. So this month, I'm working out a regime of daily or weekly backups to cover anything that changes on my imaging station hard drive. I know there's many ways to do this, but the key is make it simple so it will get done, regularly.

It's pretty intense around here at the moment as I try to figure out where I am, mostly for the digital image files I use for teaching, as I was prepping three new slide presentations. But if I hadn't had my backups, I'd be 'dead in the water' as they say. At least I can move forward and then spend time later figuring out the few things I might be missing.

I learned several things from this:

1. Make regular, complete backups of picture files and documents.

2. Make the process simple so you'll stick to the backup regime.

3. Don't think the stuff is safe from one day to the next. Any time you change something important, back it up.

4. The most obvious one - when fooling around with picture files, double check everything you're doing before hitting the delete trash button!

Even if the pictures you are making are only for fun, vacation, or class - they are valuable to you, personally. It's easy to say "oh, I'll back up next week", but that could be too late. A simple, inexpensive hard drive is all you need to transfer the pictures as you download to your system, so you at least two copies.

July 25, 2006

I'm by far not an expert in Photoshop, and have much to learn yet, but each week there are exciting discoveries for me. When I was in Egypt with American Photo Mentor Series Treks, in January, I shot several scenes of the interior of ruins, each one bracketed by about 1 stop exposure. I had been told about this new function in Photoshop, but didn't have a clue how to use it. Nonetheless, I prepared image files for future use in that process. The idea that you could get 6 or 7 stops of detail in one image was intriguing!

Traveling so much this year, I only tried it once, and was a total failure at it! But I kept making pictures that I thought would benefit from this technique, and finally, after taking a 1-day class with Lewis Kemper, I learned how to use this feature. I'm still not getting is just perfect, but it's coming along.

Chiostro 1.

This led me to think about the overall technique and how it changes our perception of the scene. In the images included here, the two of the Chiostro in Venice would never have been possible without this feature. Yet if not carefully processed, the picture can look artificial. Chiostro 1 looks fake to me, but Chiostro 2 looks more believable.

Chiostro 2.

The image of the church was the best - it looks very real. So partly I have to perfect my technique, but also I need to watch carefully the level of contrast and the range of brightness I'm putting in to my scenes - through HDR - and make sure they look right to the eye.

This church scene would have taken a lot of PS work to bring out the light balance. HDR is a powerful feature, once you know how to make it work for you.

July 18, 2006

For sports, wildlife and photojournalists, the moment is what the picture is often about. When I travel, I'm like a photojournalist, looking for the moments of daily life, those slices of action or activity that tell a story of the people, the place.

When traveling in Venice in late May, my final day there found me walking the northeastern promenade, near the optional station for the ferry to Burano. It's a quieter neighborhood, with far few tourists to crowd the wide walk along the water. There are restaurants, and certainly the area caters to tourists (where in Venice doesn't?!) but here, it's the quieter side and I like to wander and watch. On this particular early evening, though, not much was happening, and I was very hungry, so I decided to look for a restaurant on the water and enjoy my last meal there in the waning sun. But less than a minute later, I spotted this couple - saying goodbye - for a few days? weeks? - who knows, but they were passionate, touching, caring, and very sweet. The light was just as sweet, sweeping down the promenade and lighting them well, along with the church door behind them. I began to photograph, and my finger pressed the shutter release every time I saw one of them begin to shift position. The whole time I watched them, voyeuristically through my lens, I was thinking about the passion of Italians, and the single-focusedness that love can create. I tried to capture that - with people walking by while they embraced, and got one here that's OK. But the REAL picture came as a total surprise, when the older couple went walking past arm in arm, while the young couple was in a strong embrace - the final one in fact, before she ran off to the ferry boat. This picture made the waiting and watching all worth it. I used my 70-200mm lens because I didn't want them to see me at all. It was, after all, a private moment.

Working a scene while waiting for the right moment can yield several good pictures, and if you're lucky, and watchful, you can end up with one great storytelling picture in the bunch. I love the final image, of the two couples. To me it says so much about the power of love, and how sweet it is when it's lasting.

June 27, 2006

I just got back from a private tutoring session, followed by the NANPA Traveling Road Show Weekend. Kathy Adams Clark, Jim Clark (no relation), and I gave several different programs on Light, Design, Composition, Telling a Story, Capturing a Sense of Place, Surviving your First Five years in Business, and Basic Digital Photography at the NANPA program. It was a great weekend! There will be three more this year, in Houston, Monterey, and Seattle, so check the NANPA web site (www.nanpa.org) for more information.

The weekend plus the private tutoring experience got me thinking about how important it is to keep learning new things as photographers, and as individuals. I sat in on Kathy's Surviving Your First Five Years even though I'd been in business since 1985! I knew that I'd hear some things that were good reminders for me in terms of doing business - such as keeping up to date with technology, the need to be consistent with promotion, etc., but I was also there to observe her presentation style - which ultimately helps me grow as a presenter. I sat in on Jim's program "Capturing a Sense of Place" as he discussed his photo projects and how he goes about capturing a complete body of work about an area. Even though I've photographed for three books and produced one of my own, I learned a few things - or should I say was reminded of them, a reinforcement. For many people, coming to hear us talk was way of continuing their education, helping them with their vision or their business.

When I began my interest in photography as a kid, I never imagined I'd be good enough to be published some day - in fact I wasn't even sure I was looking for that in the very beginning. Photography was just pure fun and gave me the opportunity to be out there in nature and traveling around seeing new things. But I was driven to get better, skill-wise, and I began taking local workshops and Continuing Ed courses when I was 16 years old. I took at least two every year, even while going to night school for my career degree. I continued that practice and today, I still attend workshops, seminars, etc. that can help me grow my business, my technical skills (these days with computer and digital stuff) - and inspire me to follow my dreams. Classes and workshops are the most valuable things and I'll continue attending programs that can stimulate my mind and my creative eye.

For your own growth, take courses here at Betterphoto, attend field workshops, or find professionals who do the work you like to do and see if they are teaching - and attend those. In fact, do them all when you can! The growth you'll experience is really remarkable.

June 13, 2006

In preparing new images for a talk I’m giving for NANPA’s Road Show in Boston on June 23-25, I was looking for a subject for some extreme macro pictures - where I combine my 100 mm, two extension tubes, and a diopter to get in close - really close. This technique creates wonderful abstracts - there's such little depth of field that you have a lot of colors blending and only the edges of things or one area may be in focus. My partner and I had just bought this gorgeous rose called Heart of Gold, and about three blossoms opened over the weekend. The colors were incredible in these flowers and I decided to play around with it.

Rose Abstract #1.

The first image shows you the rose as it looks normally. But in the others, there are various combinations of macro accessories. Abstract #1 is two extension tubes, a 12 mm and 25 mm, mounted between the camera body and my 100 mm macro lens, with a Canon 500D diopter on the front. This allowed me to get in really close to capture the glow of sunlight between layers of petals. I deliberately chose a wide open (f2.8) aperture for this picture, as I wanted it to be more like a painting or chalk pastel effect. I was excited about what I was seeing in the viewfinder, a bonus of photographing wide open - what you see is what you get!

Rose Abstract #2.

Rose Abstract #3.

In Abstract #2, I used my 100 mm macro lens and the two extension tubes only, again choosing a wide aperture (f3.2), to render the droplets sharp on the petal. In Abstract #3, I chose an aperture of f8, to render the edge of the petal and the water drop sharp, using my 100 mm macro and the 25 mm extension tube. Both images work, but have a different look to them.

Rose Abstract #4.

Pulling out all the “stops,” I decided to put both extension tubes, and diopter back onto the 100 mm macro and get in very close again, this time focusing through some of the closer petals into the interior of the rose. Where you see the pale lavender/blue, was a shadow, softened by the blending of objects out of focus around it. This softness gave the whole picture a dreamlike effect, just what I was looking for in this abstract.

After about 1 1/2 hours, my back was sore, but I was totally energized by the results I obtained! Getting into extreme macro is a lot of fun, and a great creative workout. You have to move around, in and out on your subject until you see something that you really like. There’s no way to know what’s there until you get in that close - you just can’t see it with your naked eye. But once you start looking that closely, you find magic happening!

June 06, 2006

I had a wild two months of business, and missed blogging on a weekly basis. But I had a great time traveling and leading my photo tour through Tuscany and Venice. I’m just now reviewing all the images I made, and thought I’d share a few with some ideas.

In doing street photography, which I love to do, timing is everything. This is true for wildlife, too, so the skill you learn about anticipating moments and gestures can carry over into several areas of photography!

The group was photographing this ornate entrance to the Venice Shipyard, and while I liked the overall scene, I wanted something more - a human being, walking through the gate. Rather than having them coming towards me, though, I wanted them walking into the shipyard, which would then draw you, the viewer, into it with them. So I waited around for something to happen. Several people walked in, but they were not military and didn’t say much about what this gate was as a result. When finally, my luck turned, and I saw this sailor with briefcase, I figured it was my chance. But timing is everything, and I made several frames in succession. The first one was my own anticipation of the moment the gesture of walking in would be best; the second was from being on continuous frame. You can see that the first one is better - I have his whole body in the frame of the gate, and he’s stepping up and forward. I made the choice of when to press the shutter that first time. In the second image, which occurred simply because I kept my finger on the shutter release, I’ve lost his right arm and hand behind the gate and his legs are more jumbled up together. Clearly the first image is the better of the two.

In the frames of mother and grandmother walking, my first frame was not the best. I saw the moment and made the picture without really thinking - just reacting - and as soon as I pressed the shutter I knew it wasn’t THE moment. I had to wait for them to be on the stairs, for better gesture, and better lighting all around them. The second image was better - and even though I wasn’t on continuous frame setting with this one, I was “off” on my timing at first, due to being emotionally excited about seeing their connection, seeing the sweetness of caregiving as the mother helped her mother walk, and not thinking clearly. It’s easy to get lost in the emotional aspects of photography, but you always have to remember to watch for those gestures and moments that tell the stronger story, even as you’re feeling the moment yourself!

May 02, 2006

I don't have much to write about today since I'm packing madly for my trip to Italy that leaves Wednesday, and doing critiques. But I wanted to take a moment to talk about the Wacom Pen and Tablet for working in Photoshop. I don't know how many of you might already be using one, but after playing around with them a few times the past year or so, I was convinced that it was going to be very helpful.

I love this thing! My hands were cramping from holding a certain position with a mouse, same with a trackball, and now, I get more flexibility with the pen and tablet. I can move the tablet to my lap, and work from that position, or leave it next to the keyboard (although that's a distance away with both side by side. Either way, I'm really enjoying this new purchase.

If you haven't tried one, do so the first chance you get. It's not for everyone, possibly, but many people I know that work with Photoshop a lot and image processing have found it to be less problematic with body ergonomics, and in general faster. Especially since you can custom design the slider tabs on each side of the tablet to do what you want them to do.

Reflections, Maine. Brenda Tharp. All rights reserved.
On another thought, many of us have our computers in rooms that are difficult to get dark enough to see the screen well or keep glare from skimming across the surface. You can buy a hood for your monitor, but why spend the money when you can make one from railroad board or matte board from an art store? With a few cuts and taping, you can custom fit the hood for your monitor. My partner made one and will make me one very soon. They work great!

Well just a few random thoughts since I just spent the day prepping new images at the computer!

April 25, 2006

It's Spring for many of us in the world, but even if it’s not Spring for you, this blog is still of interest if you do macro photography.

I just finished teaching a workshop out at Pt. Reyes National Seashore this past weekend, on wildflower macro photography. One of the most common problems students had was too busy of a background. They wanted everything sharp on the blossom(s), but in getting that looking great, the backgrounds were often too defined and distracting. One reason was that the flowers are small and closer to the ground out there due to weather conditions. So there’s not much distance between the background and the flower. Yet in all types of macro flower photography, background is key to an image’s success. You want the subject to stand out, not the background. Some people use solid fabrics or black to block out the background entirely; but if you want a natural look, you’re going to have to go with the natural field behind that flower.

Here are two examples of the same poppy. In the first image, I chose an aperture of f16 because I wanted the blossom and water drops as sharp as possible. I really liked the red “skirt” at the base of the blossom and that opening into the flower, too. But the background became a little too busy - and even though I gardened a little bit, cleaning up some dead grass stalks and leaves, light areas of highlights out of focus started to become too distracting. It’s not bad, but the second image has a better, simpler background. I chose an aperture of f10 for it. However, the little red “skirt” is less sharp and the opening area appears a little softer, too. But what a difference in the background.

In making these pictures, I used my depth of field preview button to get a sense of what the background would be like. I move the focus back and forth while holding in that button, trying to see the changes in the background and settling on an aperture that gives me the best compromise. I can’t live without that button for this type of picture, yet it’s not easy to see the image at f10 or f16. I throw a dark cloth over my head so my eyes will adjust to the darkened image in the viewfinder, and then I can see so much better. Still, I usually make a few exposures at close, yet different apertures that make the background look good while keeping the subject sharp, too. Then, I review them on my computer to make the final decision.

Yes, you can use the computer and Gaussian blur that background, but I prefer to get most of my work done while making the picture, so I have more time in the field photographing than in the office doing Photoshop. Personal choice - and a pride in being able to get it the way I want it in the field.

There are lots more tips to help you maximize depth of field and minimize backgrounds. If you want more information, consider signing up for my Macro I or Macro II courses.

April 18, 2006

You never know what you’re going to find when you plan a trip to photograph Spring somewhere - or any season for that matter. If you have a flexible schedule that allows for last minute changes, you might be able to watch the progression of the season to predict when it might be peak for certain things - wildflowers, fall foliage, etc., and make changes to your travel plans. But most of us don’t have that flexibility. My field workshop in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park last week was planned over a year ago for the school to finalize their scheduling and advertising. It’s not possible to know what Spring will be like for 2006 way back then! I arrived on April 7th, only to find that Spring had not really come to the Smokies just yet. Barely begun, the redbud tree were blossoming, but little to nothing else. The dogwood, which often come after the redbud, were scarcely seen save for a blossom here and there on an early blooming tree. The other trees were mostly bare, with few catkins or seeds just beginning to emerge. I was in shock; as I drove around, I wasn’t finding much that grabbed my attention, and I had 12 people coming to meet me on Saturday night! They were anxious to capture the essence of Spring in this park, and it was my job to teach them how. “Yikes!” I remember saying to my assistant as we scouted out all my favorite places there. “Nothing’s happening yet, at least not very pronounced at this point, anyway. What are they going to photograph?” Concern was beginning to set in, as I had specific expectations. That’s when I remembered the danger of going out with a specific plan. And that I know from past experiences that you can always find things to photograph if you look closely and appreciate what’s there. I had to reframe, shift my thinking, pull in my sights. The big vistas of forests dressed in lime-green leaves and bright white dogwood blossoms weren’t happening; so what was? As I looked, I found early spring flowers blooming. And the water was flowing wonderfully over sculpted rocks and mossy boulders, freshly green from the last few days of rain. Bark patterns were still there, and textures of moss with tiny green plants embedded in them. It might not be perfect, but there were things to photograph. The historic cabins were still there, with their silvery weathered wood and peaceful settings in forest clearings and coves. Sparks Lane held possibilities, if we got good morning light and maybe some ground fog. As I inventoried what was there, I began to feel a little better. In the end, I needn’t have worried so much. The students really found great things to photograph, as shown here in these three small examples.

Many more were made, too. And as each day progressed, Spring began to burst forth and we had new things to photograph! When the end of the week came, it was just coming around nicely. Once again the point was proved that if you are open to what’s around you, and if you love being out in Nature, you will find beautiful things to photograph, no matter what the season. It isn't always about the large landscape; sometimes the beauty of the season is contained in the small things.

April 04, 2006

I had a client order a 16x24 of a fine art image the other day, one of my favorites from my Impressions of Nature series. After I stopped jumping up and down with joy, I had to get down to the task of having it printed. I don't have a large printer, so that meant having a professional printer do it for me. But that was easy, since I developed a great working relationship with a digital service lab a few years ago.

It's great if you have the experience of using Elements, Photoshop CS2, or even Painter, to produce a quality digital file to print from, and the means to print it on quality archival printers. If you don't, you need to find someone you can trust to produce the image as you envision it. Some of that responsibility will fall on your shoulders, to communicate what you want to the digital preparer, but ultimately, you still want to work with someone who has a strong eye for photographic printing and won't interpret your image their way.

Here are some tips for getting the most from the digital service bureau:

1. Send them a TIFF or PSD file, not a JPEG, for best results.

2. If you have prepared the file digitally yourself, send them a good quality reference print from your printer. They won’t be able to match it exactly, due to the difference in papers, inks and printers, but they’ll have something to refer to and it will help.

3. Find out the specs for sending a prepared file to the service bureau. Do they want the file as a flattened or layered TIFF? Do they want a certain color profile embedded into the file? Do they want to size and sharpen it or have you do that? (and, do you want to trust them to do that?)

3. Ask for a proof print. If you haven’t prepared the file digitally, and are counting on them to do it, that proof will be essential to seeing what their interpretation was of the file you sent them, and you might be pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised with the results! But this is where you get to change things - and adjust contrast, color balance, dodging/burning areas, etc. to arrive at a final print that you’ll be happy with. Even if you have prepared the file yourself, ask for that proof.

If you don’t know what to tell them, in terms of contrast, color, etc., then it’s best to have someone who’s eye you trust, and ask for their opinion on what needs changing on the proof print.

Even though my skill in Photoshop is continually growing, when it came to making the best print I could for my client, I took this image to my trusted service bureau, Colorfolio. Based in Sebastopol, Colorfolio works with clients across the county. They have topnotch equipment for scanning, preparing and printing, and the knowledge to use it all well. Bob Cornelis, the owner, is also a fine art photographer, oil pastel artist, and a guru when it comes to Photoshop, so I know my images are in very good hands when I leave them off to be worked on with Bob and his staff! If I haven't done the prep work myself, I know I can trust them to get very close in the proof print, and we discuss it from there. I have used their services for 6 years now, and the results are always great. I use them for drum-scanning my slides, and to prepare files that are more complicated than my skills can handle right now. Although I’ve been saying for a while that I’m going to get my own printer and get up to speed on Photoshop, having such a great lab has allowed me to focus my time on other things instead, and maybe that large format printer will just wait a little while longer.